Recep Tayyip Erdogan is fighting. Ever-the Turkish President is currently traveling across the country. He keeps every day several Speeches, television interviews and hosts a virtual meeting rounds with young people in the social media. The use of the 65-year-old is a choice, nothing about him actually. This Sunday 57 million Turkish voters only have their local parliaments and mayors, not the President. But Erdogan himself has declared the municipal election for the referendum on self. And that could be for him to the Problem. His government party, the AKP, on Sunday will remain the strongest political force in the country, but losses to the voice of the ACP in the municipalities could have an impact on a national level.
Especially the bad economic situation makes the candidate from Erdogan’s ruling AKP party. The Turkey is in recession, unemployment is rising. Only with much trouble the government in the last few days was able to prevent before the election, a renewed crash of the national currency, the Lira. Erdogan blames the problems on the alleged machinations of the foreign: The currency turbulence, he said on Thursday, “operations of the West, particularly the United States to push Turkey into a corner”.
In Ankara and Istanbul, the Opposition front
is Whether that’s enough to inspire the choice of the people for the ACP is uncertain. Several polls, a defeat of the Erdogan predict-party in the capital, Ankara, ruled masters since 1994, of Islamic-conservative citizens. In Erdogan’s home city of Istanbul, the Opposition candidate in several of the interviews ahead. In the government conquer panic, said the Turkish Journalist Aydin Engin of our newspaper. Even commentators in government-related media, that the Opposition is motivated by appearance than other options.
Where is the political supremacy of the ACP, the commencement, in Alliance with the radical right-wing MHP, on Sunday not at risk. At the last local election five years ago, the Erdogan’s party won 53 of the 81 provincial capitals of the country. There is today no party, which could be the ACP is seriously dangerous.
53 hours for the ACP, six for the Opposition
in addition, the majority of the government’s line brought media attention that Erdogan is constantly present. According to the opposition, the state broadcaster addressed the TRT in February, 53 hours with AKP and MHP, but only six hours with the opposition Alliance of the secular CHP and the conservative IYI Parti. The pro-Kurdish HDP, in the government media as a bogeyman.
Nevertheless, the government is unsettled and therefore strengthened the pressure on dissenters. Erdogan warned voters in Ankara in front of it, to give it in the polls leading opposition candidate Mansur Yavas, your voice: If this choice wins, would Yavas and Ankara will pay the tax, said Erdogan.
Also more than 300 other opposition candidates want to leave Erdogan, the mandates take it away, if they should win on Sunday: These candidates have Connections to terrorist organizations, says the government. In the Kurdish area new HDP could be deposed-the mayor and by the Governor of Ankara to be replaced. In more than 90 municipalities in the Kurdish region, the mayor had been removed in recent years from the Offices.
The threats are always undisguised
If it is going to be the government, should the Opposition candidates compete in the election, but not win, said CHP chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu. Also Kilicdaroglu himself is on Erdogan’s hit list: The President threatened him and the IYI-Parti-chair Meral Aksener with law enforcement. Even for Turkey, where in the policy traditionally, a harsh Wind blows than, for example, in Western Europe, it is unheard of.
To its Islamic-conservative tribal voters on Sunday to the polls, attacks, Erdogan also deep into the mothballs. He provides a conversion of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque. On several election campaign rallies, the President also had parts in the massacre Videos of Christchurch in conjunction with Kilicdaroglu-quotes show, for allegedly anti-Islamic tendencies to denounce the Opposition.
It is also a question of the existence of the AKP-MHP Alliance
Should the ACP on Sunday as the winner of the election, would Erdogan expected to be a lot of time to meet until the next election in the year 2023, some unpopular decisions, such as in economic policy. An indicative value for the success or failure of the performance of the AKP-MHP Alliance in the parliamentary elections in the previous year, as the two parties got together, 53.7 percent of the vote. The Alliance should slip on Sunday but is below 50 percent and also a big city like Ankara or Istanbul to lose, this may be a completely new dynamic.
Then, Erdogan’s Partner, MHP chief Devlet Bahceli could come to the conclusion that he must dissolve the government party, in order to escape the downward spiral. The AKP knew that on the previous Erdogan opponents Bahceli is not reliable, said the USA-based Turkey expert Selim Sazak of our newspaper.
Especially the results in Ankara and Istanbul were important, says Sazak: “If the Opposition wins, either in Ankara or in Istanbul, the AKP problems. If the Opposition wins in both cities, the floodgates open.“
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